OLTL's Evans & Claywell Respond To Rumors & Tactics

False rumors have been spread about Brett Claywell and Scott Evans following their firing last week by ONE LIFE TO LIVE. While the actors were class acts at the GLAAD Awards, a nasty smear campaign started happening behind the scenes.

Soap Opera Digest spoke with Claywell about the rumors.

In response to the rumors that it was one actor's partying and the other's busy schedule that led to them being let go, Claywell laughs, "It's so false it's slander. Scott and I were nothing but professional and completely 100 percent dedicated to our work."

There was a column in TV Guide Canada that alleges that you two were written off for performance issues. I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to that.

Scott informed me of that yesterday. It’s amazing to me that two people can put so much of their heart into a story that can be so passionate and serious and tell a story as honestly and as truthfully as we tried to and just open our hearts to the world and just try to make a difference, try and touch people and stories like this will come out that are absolutely, 100% false. I’d love for anyone to watch one day of any of the work we’ve done and tell me that Scott and I were not 100% committed to what we were doing. We were so dedicated to our work. It’s hurtful. I’m really offended that someone would make completely false claims. I’m angry. It’s slander.

It struck me that if you were being unprofessional, you probably wouldn’t have gotten an Emmy pre-nomination.

One of the last days that Scott and I worked together, the argument scene that just aired two weeks ago when I had the DNA test, we had all these scenes that were from different episodes, 41 pages of dialogue that Scott and I filmed in maybe an hour and a half. We work so methodically together and so well together. We would film scenes in one take like everybody does. You ask the directors we worked with. The fact that you can spend a year and a half pouring your heart into a story and one person with one article can try to bruise that reputation you have, it’s disheartening and it’s offensive.

Scott Evans responded on Twitter earlier today:

Such a bummer what all of this is turning into. I will continue to respect the decision but will remain unhappy with the tactics.

Meanwhile, fans are up in arms and have formed websites, planned rallies and are determined to let ABC know how they feel.

We have, on many levels, one of the most groundbreaking gay stories on daytime. At a minimum, Kish pushed the envelope in ways that helped bring daytime closer to primetime and cinematic standards.

Also, as Tony notes, their impact was always blunted, tentative, because neither one came from a core family.

Nonetheless, Kish could have BECOME a core family. We are to be deprived of that.

It is appalling that -- rather than let this gem of a short-term story fade happily into that good night -- rumors and innuendo are being fed to the soap press to diminish and tarnish the ending of this story.

I actually don't necessarily blame Mr. Branco for reporting this. This kind of story is uniquely his 'brand'. But I repudiate the muckraker(s) who are feeding these stories to Mr. Branco.

When US daytime soaps are gone later this decade, Kish will stand out as a high note from the final years. This whispering will do nothing to diminish the legacy of their contributions.

Yes David, markh and robb: TVGC's Branco is extremely biased. He consistently promotes actors like Michael Muhney, Nadia Bjorlin and Brandon Beemer. Based on twitter, he has close, personal friendships with all of them. He's very biased to OLTL, as shown by his "thanks a lot Frank" being his only criticism for Kish's axing.

He consistently promotes Beemer and Bjorlin by reporting on their Italian photoshoots, photoshoots w/ other mags and beemer's anti-testicular cancer photoshoot. He even praised Beemer recently for Bridget and Owen's grief sex! For real! And he often pimps Beemer as one of B&B's best actors, when Beemer's acting is often trashed in the boards. All he does is go shirtless, wear a towel, dress like a goth ewok, look like a reindeer or wear a leaf brief and Branco praises his "acting"! LOL!

With Muhney, he often pimps him out and extolls the virtues of his acting. He even calls him a "superstar". Hello? Braeden, Thomas Scott, Davidson are the superstars, and they along with Case, Morrow and Stafford consistenly overshadow Muhney.

Did I mention that Muhney, Bjorlin and Beemer have all done NO H8 campaigns? That explains all the pimping and the false rave reviews. He almost never critiques OLTL so it's no surprise that he's showing his bias for Carlivati, Valentini and OLTL in the Kish fiasco.

I don't want to take this off topic but why does Nelson Branco get away with his kind of journalism, i.e, sensationalistic, gossipy, self-serving, ass-kissing, etc. (I could go on and on.)??That's what I love about We Love Soaps. It has thoughtful and smart interviews with present and former soap stars, it posts only the news without any kind of snarky comment or sexual innuendo, and the guys don't use the site to promote their own agenda.

Branco gets to push his agenda bec he has free reign on TVGC columns. And all he does is arse kiss or use his columns to publicize his favorites. That's how he gets his scoops. Have you even read his newest column naming Brandon Beemer sexiest soap male? Duh of course he's going to name Beemer that since they are close friends on twitter and he did the NO H8 campaign. Beemer's handsome, but he could have picked a soap hunk who could actually act (Billy Miller or Tuc Watkins maybe?)

It's insane how he gets away w/ writing that Adrienne Frantz is ugly and calling KKL an idiot for not picking Storm's suicide as her reel. He even called or wrote (or both) Melody Thomas Scott Miss Piggy all bec she denied talking to him abt her negotiations with Y&R. And he's even worse with hunter tylo, bashing her acting left and right by calling her a hair model. Hello? He thinks Tylo is bad, but praises Nadia Bjorlin and Brandon Beemer's acting? LOL! Tylo is miles better than them, and she's proven her skills as an actress by portraying Tay for all these years, but he'll publicize Bjorlin and Beemer bec they're his twitter friends and they did NO H8 campaign.

He consistently insults Tylo's physical appearance, saying her face is a guilty pleasure, or her lips can't be ripped off, or that Whip needs barf bags when he sees Tay naked. Why does he bash Tylo? Bec she tried to banish him from B&B's set bec he ran an anonymous item abt her.

Branco'll bash Wheeler for Otalia and even bring her Mormon beliefs into it, but Wheeler never fired Otalia actors. He did the same to Goutman when Nuke didn't kiss. But his only criticism to Valentini for axing Kish was a sarcastic "thanks a lot". His bias is very clear.